


Finding it out

by ChocoNut



Series: Many ways to say I love you [100]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: 8x4 missing scene, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fluff, Season 8
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-15 07:08:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29804766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChocoNut/pseuds/ChocoNut
Summary: After they have survived the long night, Jaime approaches Pod to get to know more about Brienne.
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Series: Many ways to say I love you [100]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1234904
Comments: 22
Kudos: 74





	Finding it out

“Ser Jaime,” Podrick greets him. “If you wish to speak to Lord Tyrion in private—”

“It is you I came seeking,” Jaime says, his sudden interest inviting the squire’s wide-eyed surprise. 

Since the moment of his arrival, questions, one after the other, have been crowding his mind, each more complicated than its predecessor. Who else to approach but the man who has been with her the most?

“Tell me about her,” he asks directly, for he has no time to wait anymore nor the patience to lurk around the entrance without entering where he wants to be.

“Her?”

“ _Her_ , Pod. Her. Where my brother is concerned, there is now only one _her_.” Tyrion provides his valuable contribution in the form of his smirk. “Did I not tell you he would soon come seeking our counsel?”

“I’m not here for anyone’s counsel,” Jaime snaps back. While that is exactly what he is here for, his brother does not need to know about it. “I just came to inquire if all has been well with Lady Brienne.”

“She has been in good company.” It is Tyrion who answers again. He exchanges a look with Pod. “She has taught him well, and he has proven his worth.”

“That is not what I was getting at.”

“What do you want to know, ser?” Podrick’s smile tells him he’s here to help.

Jaime can, even today, vividly recollect her broken face when news of Lady Catelyn and her family’s massacre reached them. Those eyes had lost their brilliance for days. “Has she been well?”

“As good as one can be after enduring all she has been through.” Pod’s chubby face falls. “The world has not been kind to her, Ser Jaime.”

_Nor have I._

He had spent almost a year with her, yet he knows nothing except she’s Lord Selwyn’s daughter. “What do you know about her childhood?” 

“That she had a troubled one,” the lad informs. He goes on to relate the tale of how her father grudgingly let her pick the sword in place of the needle; how her Septa had not taken well to her odd interests. “Thrice betrothed, and thrice the alliances broken, no man has ever wanted her.”

_Except me._

“Those cunts are the losers, not her,” Jaime explodes, when Pod finishes with his narration of how she’d been promised to an old man her father’s age and the insults she had to bear at Ronnet Connington’s hands. “None of them deserved her.”

“ _You_ do, but,” Tyrion smoothly inserts his opinion in. “You, once, had a mocking eye for her. And a bloody bitter tongue. We are to believe you feel differently now—no?”

Jaime decides to ignore that for now. “She’s better off without them.”

“Of course,” his brother wholeheartedly agrees. “If one of them had wed her, she might never even have met you.”

“Lord Renly was the only one kind to her,” Podrick goes on. “When the rest of the boys mocked her, he danced with her.”

“And has she—” _danced with anyone else since we last parted company,_ he means to subtly ask, but what it turns into is an envious, “What about Tormund Giantsbane?”

“What about him?” Pod is not surprised, and this bothers Jaime.

“Does she—” Picturing the wench and the wildling together is not doing him any good.

“Does she… what, Jaime?” Tyrion is clearly enjoying this. “For a man of sharp words, you do seem to be fumbling with your ability to put forth your point precisely.”

“Did she speak of me even once?” For over four years they’ve been apart, meeting and parting in unsavoury circumstances with barely a few words exchanged between them.

“Are you asking him if she missed you or not?” his brother slyly rephrases an innocent question.

“She did tell the Blackfish you’re not her friend.” Pod smiles. “That was soon after she met with you—”

“Not her friend?” Jaime’s heart steps down a bit. “What am I then, her enemy?”

“One can be other than a friend or an enemy, Jaime,” Tyrion sagely points out, and for once, Jaime does not feel the urge to cut him or correct him. “Opinions and feelings boil down to much more than that.”

“Is she still in love with Renly?” He cannot decide what has been troubling him more—her undying feelings for Renly or the possibility of her and Giantsbane. “Does she—”

The door opens, and in, she walks, fingers caressing the head of her sword as always. “Here you are, Podrick—”

She stops when they rise to meet her.

“We were talking about you,” Tyrion lets it out as Pod hides a smile. “My brother came here—”

“Tyrion—” Jaime hisses in warning. “I think—” 

“—to ask Podrick about you, my lady. Just like you happened to weigh me down earlier with your numerous queries about him.”

“I told him all he wanted to know, m’lady,” Pod says, beaming happily. 

“And I told her everything that matters, Jaime,” Tyrion echoes. “No Cersei, no Renly, no Tormund.” He and Pod exchange a look, then start to leave. “There’s nothing and no one standing between you two today.” 

“What did you tell him?” Brienne asks Pod as the pair pass her on their way out.

“What did she ask about me?” Jaime calls out to his brother at the same time.

“Why don’t you find out from each other?” Tyrion says, and the two are gone.

Deciding it is time to stop talking to each other through others, Jaime approaches her. “You told the Blackfish I’m not your friend?” he whispers, taking her hand. “What am I then?”

“You stopped mid-way when you were about to tell me what brought you to Winterfell,” she dodges, her answer lying in her eyes. “Why?”

“Why did you put yourself at risk to keep me safe in the battle, Brienne?”

“Why did you return to Harrenhal for me?”

“Because I—” he begins to answer.

“Because I—” she falls into his tune.

Their eyes probing, they both halt. 

“Why don’t we go someplace quieter and talk?” he says, pressing a tender kiss to her hand. “As Tyrion says, there’s a lot we ought to find out by ourselves. And for that—” he steps closer “—I give you the rest of my life, my lady. If you’ll have me.” 

Their lips meet, and with this kiss, she tells him all that he’d been yearning to hear.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know why, but I always have to have these two at least kiss in the end. So you've got to bear with me for that :D  
> Also, this is the 100th fic in this series!!! I can't believe it - One hundred!


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